The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to Additive Manufacturing (AM) of an object, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a system and method for additive manufacturing of an object while reducing object curling effects.
Additive manufacturing is generally a process in which a three-dimensional (3D) object is manufactured utilizing a computer model of the objects. Such a process is used in various fields, such as design related fields for purposes of visualization, demonstration and mechanical prototyping, as well as for rapid manufacturing (RM).
The basic operation of any AM system consists of slicing a three-dimensional computer model into thin cross sections, translating the result into two-dimensional position data and feeding the data to control equipment which manufacture a three-dimensional structure in a layerwise manner.
Additive manufacturing entails many different approaches to the method of fabrication, including three-dimensional printing, laminated object manufacturing, fused deposition modeling and others.
In three-dimensional printing processes, for example, a building material is dispensed from a dispensing head having a set of nozzles to deposit layers on a supporting structure. Depending on the building material, the layers may then be cured or solidified using a suitable device. The building material may include modeling material, which forms the object, and support material, which supports the object as it is being built. Various three-dimensional printing techniques exist and are disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,259,962, 6,569,373, 6,658,314, 6,850,334, 7,183,335 7,209,797, 7,225,045, 7,300,619, 7,479,510, 7,500,846, 7,658,976, and 7,962,237, and U.S. Published Applications No. 20100191360, all of the same Assignee, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
AM facilitates rapid fabrication of functioning prototypes with minimal investment in tooling and labor. Such rapid prototyping shortens the product development cycle and improves the design process by providing rapid and effective feedback to the designer. AM can also be used for rapid fabrication of non-functional parts, e.g., for the purpose of assessing various aspects of a design such as aesthetics, fit, assembly and the like. Additionally, AM techniques have been proven to be useful in the fields of medicine, where expected outcomes are modeled prior to performing procedures. It is recognized that many other areas can benefit from rapid prototyping technology, including, without limitation, the fields of architecture, dentistry and plastic surgery where the visualization of a particular design and/or function is useful.
Several AM techniques allow additive formation of objects using more than one modeling material. For example, U.S. Published Application No. 20100191360 of the present Assignee, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a system which comprises an additive manufacturing apparatus having a plurality of dispensing heads, a building material supply apparatus configured to supply a plurality of building materials to the fabrication apparatus, and a control unit configured for controlling the fabrication and supply apparatus. The system has several operation modes. In one mode, all dispensing heads operate during a single building scan cycle of the fabrication apparatus. In another mode, one or more of the dispensing heads is not operative during a single building scan cycle or part thereof.